Predicting self-terminating ventricular fibrillations in an isolated heart

Abstract

PACS 87.19.Hh -Cardiac dynamics PACS 82.39.Rt -Reactions in complex biological systems PACS 05.10.-a -Computational methods in statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics Abstract -Ventricular fibrillations (VFs) in isolated hearts induced by fast pacing are studied in a Langendorff preparation by measuring the electrical signals from the right atrium (Va) and the ventricle (Vv). We find that when there is a strong component of Vv detected in Va during VF, the induced VFs are usually not self-terminating. Criteria for the prediction of self-terminating VFs are developed based on the analysis of Vv and Va by the cross-wavelet power spectrum and cross-Fourier power spectrum methods. The success rate of our prediction criteria is about 80-90%. Our findings suggest that a heart under VF can recover its sinus rhythm only when the sino-atrial node of the heart is not under strong influence of the VF from its ventricle.

How Physics can help in understanding Cardiac Rhythms Predicting & Control of complex oscillatory behavior

“…The answer to this question would shed light to the understanding of the mechanism in STVF. For this issue, we designed isolated heart experiments to answer this question [3]. In our experiments, electrical signals measured at two locations, one on the right atrium very close to the SA node (V a ) and the other from the ventricle (V v ), of a heart under VF are analyzed to search for the sign to distinguish between STVF and non-STVF.…”